the collection

Yes indeed, Miss Emi and I made it home yesterday morning. We are pooped, but happy to be home with daddy and Max. I hope to have a blog post up early this week detailing our adventure but I just want to say that Emi was a true trooper and good as gold. She handled all the changes that we tossed at her, charming all she met along the way. I am so proud of our little girl!

On to the menu for the week. Needless to say, after two basically sleepless nights on the train I am still playing catch-up on sleep. I am going to take this week very easy, meal-planning-wise, and try to use up stuff in our freezer and pantry.

Jeff thought he'd be in charge of meals the first few days (does this fab man of mine know me or what?!), so he had Saturday, Sunday and Monday meals all planned out.

Saturday's lunch he wanted to go all out, so we had marinated steaks on the grill with Rice-a-Roni (15+ years of marriage and I had no idea he loves that stuff!) and corn.

Saturday dinner was dog's on the grill with baked fries and cole slaw.

Sunday's brunch I actually was up to doing something, so he made coffee (oh, glorious wonderful coffee) and emptied the dishwasher (sweet sweet man) and entertained Miss Emi while I make pancakes. {I have to admit, I don't really follow this recipe any more, I just use it as a guideline. Typically I use 3 cups of the wheat pancake mix, about 4 oz of ricotta cheese, 2 eggs and 1.25 cups of milk - we think they are light and fluffy, sometimes I add a splash of water as the batter can get a bit thick. This makes a pretty big batch but I also make some tiny Emi-sized pancakes for later in the week usage.}

Sunday dinner was garden veggie burgers on the grill, mac and cheese, and applesauce.

What a treat to not have to worry about meal planning. Yes, they were odd meals for us and we used some convenience foods but we didn't order a pizza or send Jeff out for Quiznos or Chinese (our downfalls!). So we feel we did well this weekend.

Monday's dinner is something we like to do now and again. It's a bit pricey but not as pricey as ordering a pizza. Jeff picked up a couple of gourmet frozen pizzas. Yep, odd, but we like them. We did this much more when we lived in Japan as our lives were nuts back then. Mainly because I was on so many committees and rarely home. Now that life has changed (insert Miss Emi!), we are still nuts but in a different way. :)

We tend to need a night of not making dinner for various reasons. I am factoring this in my menu plan each week, but it won’t necessarily always (or often) be on a Saturday.

For those who have made it all the way to the end, here is a teaser of blog posting to come. Miss Emi in one of the shops we hopped to! Thanks to my mom, she is much more organized than I am and already has all her photos downloaded from her camera and (I am sure) sorted into folders on her computer. Me, I still need to unpack my camera! :)